The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1887-12-29

to-day. The world can not comfort you.
What can it bring you? Nothing. Moth
ing. The salvn they try to PIT on your
wounds will not stick. They can not, with
their bungling surgery, mend the broken
bones.
Zoppar, the Naamathite, and Bildad,
the Shuttle, and Eliphaz, the Temanite,
come in and talk and talk and talk, but
miserable comforters are they all. They
can not pour light into the cave of Adult
lam. They can not bring single drop Of
water from
The well of Bethlehem, which is by the gate.
But, glory b, to Jesus Christ, there is
comfort at the gate. There is life in the
we'll at the gate. If you give me time I
will draw up promise for every man,
woman and child in this house. Aye,
will do it in two minutes. l will lay hold
the rope of the old well.
What is your trouble? "Oh," you say,
81 am so sick, so weary of lfe-ailments
after ailments" will draw up promise:
The inhabitants shall never say 81 am sick"
What is your trouble? ooh, it is loss Of
ends-bereavement," you say. l will
draw you up promise, fresh and cod, out
of the we'll:
am the resurrection and the life he that
believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall
he live.
What is your trouble? You say it is tho
inflrmities of old age. I will draw you up
a promise:
Down to old age am with thee, to hoary
hairs will carry thee.
What is your trouble? "Oh," you say,
81 have a widowed soul, and my children
cry for bread. bring up this promise:
Leave thy fatherless chldren-I will preserve
them alive, and let thy widows trust in me.
break through the armed ranks Of your
sorrows to-day and bring to your parched
lips
A drink of the water of the we'll of Bethle-
hem, which is by the gate.
Again, the Gospel we'll is at the gate Of
Heaven. / have not heard yet ono single
intelligent account of the future world
from anv body who does not believe in the
Bible. They throw such fog about the
subject that l do not want to go to the
skeptc's heaven, to the transcendentai-
lists heaven, to the worldly philosophers
heaven. | would not EXCHANGE the poor.
est room in your house for the finest
heaven that Huxley, or Stuart Mill, or
Darwin ever dreamed of. Their heaven
has no Christ in it; and heaven without
Christ, though you could sweep the whole
universe into it, would be hell! Oh, they
tell us there are no songs there; theresare
no coronations in Heaven-that is all
imagination. They tell us we will do
there about what we do here, only on a
larger scale-geometrized with clearer in
tellect, and with alpenstock go Chamber
ing up over the icebergs in an eternal
vacation. Rather than that, turn to my
Bible, and l find Johns picture of that
good land-that Heaven which was your
lullaby in infancy; that Heaven which
our children in the Sabbath-school will
sing about this afternoon; that Heaven
which has ''well at the gate"
After you have been on a long Journey,
and you come in all bedusted and tired to
your home. the first thing you want is re-
freshing ablution; and l am glad to know
that after we get through the pilgrim.
age of this world-the hard, dusty
pilgrimage-we will fiud a we'll at
the gate. In that one wash, away
will 60 our sins and sorrows. do not care
whether cherub, or seraph, or my own de-
parted friends in that blessed land place
to my lips the cup, the touch of that cup
will be life, will be Heaveni Twas read
ing of how the ancients sought for the
fountain of perpetual youth. They thought
if they could only find and drink out
of that well, the old would become young
again, the sick would be cured and every
body would have eternal juvenescence.
OF course, they could not find it. Eureka |!
have found it!
The water of the well of Bethlehem, which is
by the gate.
l think we had better make a bargain
with those who leave us, going out of this
world from timo to time, as to where
we will meet them. Travellers part.
ing appoint a place of future
meeting. They say: 1--WE will meet at
Rome, or W. will meet at Stockholm, or
Vienna, OF Jerusalem, OF Bethlehem"
Now, when we come to stand by the death
pillow of those who are leaving us for the
far land, do not let us weep as though we
would never see them again, but let us,
there standing, appoint place where we
will meet Where shall it be? Shall it be
on the banks of the river? No. The banks
are too long. Shall it be in the temple?
No, no. There is such a host therefor
thousand times ten thousand. Where
shall we meet our loved ones? Let us
make an appointment to meet at the we'll
by the gate. Oh Heaven! Sweet Heaven |!
Dear Heaven! Heaven, where Jesus is!
Heaven! Heaven!
But while I stand here there comes q
revusion of feeling when look into your
eyes and know there are souls here dying
of thirst, Notwithstanding the we'll at the
gate. Between them and the we'll Of
Heaven there is a great army of sin,
and though Christ is ready to clear a way
to that we'll for them, they will not have
his love or inteTcession.
But l am glad to know that you may
come yet The well is here-the well Of
Heaven. Come; 1 do not care how feeble
you are. Let me take hold of your arm
and steady you up to the well-curb.
Ho, every one that thirsteth, come.
Iwould rather win one soul to Christ
this morning than wear the crown Of the
worlds dominion. Do not let any man
go away and say 1 did not invite him.
Oh, if you could only just look at my
Lord once; if you could just see him full
in the face; ay, if you could only do as
that woman did whom Tread about at
the beginning of the services-just come
up behind him and touch his feet-me-
thinks you would live. In Northern New
Jersey one winter three little childrep